Speech Actions and Mental States in Task-Oriented Dialogues
Peter A. Heeman · 1993
In this paper, we propose a set of speech actions to account for how conversants collaborate in building a domain plan. The actions that we propose are indexical on the current plan, which is part of the mental states of the conversants. The current plan not only includes the actions that have been proposed to solve the problem, but also beliefs about the plans validity and how each action contributes to the overall goal of the plan. The intended effects of the actions are that the current plan is updated. Introduction In a task oriented dialogue, conversants are jointly building a domain plan to accomplish the task at hand. They do this through their speech actions. Some of the actions deal with exchanging information about the state of the world or about the plan that is being built. But others are intended to change the plan. For instance, a speaker can suggest that a certain action be added to the plan, can express a judgment about the validity of the plan, and can propose a refa...